Subdividing and Wall Building
by Marsha Abelman
We are a species that likes to subdivide. Humans
constantly sort and label our land and our "stuff," making
sure things are identified as "ours," and "not theirs."
We even group ourselves into cliques, sort ourselves by tribal clothing
and passwords, gather in clubhouses and look out at the "others."
We cannot be happy to see ourselves as one big human family; we can't
simply allow that the "others" are really just like "us."
All humans were born for reasons unknown, are struggling to reproduce
and protect and feed our young, are trying to stay warm and dry, but
will all eventually die and cease to exist for the other humans.
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Penn Jillette's recent audio essay, "I Believe
there is No God" on NPR's "This I Believe" series solicited
a rancorous rebuttal from another listener. Penn (of the magic act
Penn & Teller) didn't demean believers, but just explained, with
his characteristic sharp humor, his own non-belief. Yet the man who
replied to his essay was quite irritated, and he defended belief,
saying that believers are good people who help others in need and
in times of disaster because they believe in God.
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There's that subdividing, again! The man sits behind
his self-created wall, looking out at the "others" - in
this case, non-believers - and sees them as different from (and not
as good as) himself. He chooses not to see the non-believers who also
donate and work to help those in need and during disasters simply
because they believe in helping their fellow man. I have a non-religious
friend who donated two months of her life working in a disaster area
recently, not at the command of an invisible deity, but because she's
a caring person. |
If believers could only come out of their mental clubhouses
and objectively talk with non-believers, they'd quickly see that there
really is no difference between "us" and "them."
Without labels, without subdivisions, we are all humans, first and
foremost, and we're all trying to survive and to make sense of our
existence. |
Philosopher David Hume said, "Heaven and hell suppose
two distinct species of men, the good and the bad, but the greater
part of mankind float between vice and virtue. Were one to go round
the world with an intention of giving a good supper to the righteous
and a sound drubbing to the wicked, he would frequently be embarrassed
in his choice, and would find the merits and demerits of most men
and women scarcely amount to the value of either." Belief in
deity certainly does not make a person more useful to society, because
believers commit all the atrocities they like to think only "evil"
people commit - adultery, incest, theft, vandalism, addictions, murder.
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Believers in Jesus will remember his words to the woman
caught in sexual indiscretions. The Pharisees who brought her to Jesus
wanted to stone her. Jesus simply said to the woman, "Go, and
sin no more." He didn't say, "Go, become a Navigator/Catholic/New
Life church member/ Presbyterian/whatever." His concern was not
that she go change other people's beliefs or actions but rather that
she take personal responsibility. He wanted her to look at "the
man in the mirror" not peer out the window to monitor and marginalize
the neighbors. |
With apologies to the New Testament writer, let's just
"go, and subdivide no more." |
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